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Attempt at Athy’s Novel-Accurate Debutante Gown (+extra Jetty)

Due to my own boredom and inability to focus on my schoolwork, i decided to detour from that and sketch what i imagine a novel-accurate debutante gown for Athy would look like with the description given for it in chapter 54.

i try to stick to what was described and took heavy references from pinterest, especially with details such as the bow, bracelet, skirt, etc.. also, my first time drawing Athy with her platinum blonde hair as described in the novel! obviously in the manhwa Athy’s hair already looks more like Diana than Claude’s with it being lighter, but it definitely was on the subtler side (which i honestly think works with scenes where Athy emulates Claude). i also try to keep it fairy-like in terms of vibes and added sparkles to her bow and hair. overall, not too bad for a first attempt though i think it’s still a little far off. this design is basically one that i try to take the least liberties with since i’m aware of how many people want to see art of Athy’s novel dress and i’m one of them so i feel quite happy with this. though is it technically a sketch…

and as if sketching Athy’s dress from the novel description wasn’t enough, i decided to take my brain rot further and sketch out how i think Jennette’s debutante dress would look like. courtesy to it not being described and my brain going haywire at this point lmao.

i’m exposing my inner ASM stan again because this is the second time i used an iconic ASM lady’s hair (or, hairbow to be exact) as an inspiration for a WMMAP fan design. this time instead of Shuri i decided to reference Ohara because honestly that hairstyle is to die for. Jennette’s dress on the other hand heavily referenced from a dress that assume is from the regency era? i just think the vibes suit her. yes i did also give her a fan for some details (referenced a drawing of a character named Audrey Hall from Lord Of The Mysteries, never read it but i heard it’s great) and i know it doesn’t match her vibe in the slightest but like, she deserves some fun in this sketch.

so, yeah. that’s my attempt at sketching out what i would imagine Athanasia’s debutante gown would look like as described in the novel, with a bonus Jennette to boot. let me know if there’s anything in these designs i improve on as i would love to hear some feedback. see ya <3 ;3

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OP loves to wear lolita all day (cr无聊的人类类）

Cnetizens

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Anyone from the 80s, 90s and early 2000s know Yue and Toya were big for a guy couple on TV let alone anime, besides that though these were all my favorite characters and this will always be one of the best animes. You can not have anime now without anime from before!

P.S I am looking for my Toya where you at Prince

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The forgotten god and his last believer

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old pieces by wlop

I just found something interesting today when I was cleaning up my old computer. I found some old pieces about 6 years ago… I can’t even remember them…

I know that I’m not a talented painter, I usually spend double time and effort to make the same progress as the others. But I don’t care about it now.

There will always be thousands of excuses for you to give up: have no talent, have no time, not professional, lack of basic painting skill, no one teaches me… but there is still one reason for you to persevere: you want be better!

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I gotta go watch Little Witch Academia someday

The Closet Under The Stairs - What Akko Kagari Means to Me

Here's something you might not know about me: I absolutely hate Harry Potter. I find the characters uninteresting, the world borderline fascistic but also underdeveloped, the themes repulsive (lots of really shady politics, elitism, racism, and queerphobia), and the author absolutely reprehensible.

So when I got recommended an anime called "Little Witch Academia" that was advertised to me as "an all-girls Hogwarts", I was very apprehensive. Harry Potter but with all girls? It's going to be an exclusionary, even more elitist, more homophobic, more transphobic shitshow. I thought.

Anyway, so it turns out that Little Witch Academia is one of the best anime I've ever seen and spoke to me on a deep personal level that I didn't think possible. It is the opposite to Harry Potter in nearly every way, more evocative of "The Worst Witch" and uses the aesthetics of better magic media. It is the antithesis. Something I wish I had growing up instead of the TERF manifesto.

And the heart and soul of the entire narrative is it's protagonist: Akko Kagari.

She is nothing like Harry. She comes from no special lineage, she isn't a "chosen one", she's not privileged or wealthy, and she's not great with magic.

Akko's story starts ten years prior to the bulk of the narrative, in which she, a seemingly normal child, visits a magic show - and becomes utterly captivated. Her life begins at this point, and she is so taken aback by the witch, Shiny Chariot, that she knows exactly what she wants and who she wants to be.

Just one problem. She's not that thing currently, and is severely disadvantaged for... reasons.

Time having passed, at 16 she enrolls at Luna Nova, an academy for witches. She barely gets there on time, unable to fly a broom and having to receive the help of Lotte and Sucy, two much more competent, already magical witches, the latter of which takes them on a "detour" through dangerous magical woods. Here, Akko, whilst almost being killed (which is recurring for comedic effect), uncovers the "Shiny Rod", previously held by her idol, Chariot. This infuses her with even more determination to be just like Chariot, her main drive throughout most of the show.

Long story short, though - she's terrible at most things. She can't do magic particularly well, and seems to have an innate disadvantage, becoming something of a laughingstock. She makes friends, but catches the scorn of some of the teachers, and most notably, Diana Cavendish, the top student. Diana is a British noblewoman, set in traditionalism, unbreakably tough, and highly talented, doing everything perfectly. At least, until she's exposed as more fragile than first thought. And Diana doesn't take too kindly to Akko's "frivolous" ambitions and inspiration from Chariot, who had since disappeared and is heavily looked down upon in the magic community.

Akko seems to be autistic, and seems to have some degree of ADHD, but that only serves to emphasise her greatest qualities: her unbreakable determination, hyper enthusiasm and pure goodness. In other words, she's an exaggeration of the Shounen Protagonist. Nothing can stop her. For example, she cannot fly a broom, and so pushes forward using other magic and technology. She cannot transform well, and so uses her goofy creations for bizzare yet genius utilities. She never ever gives up, despite those who look down on her, and the odds that are so stacked against her. As an outsider, she actively fights and challenges the rigid, nonsensical traditions that were imposed on the magic world. Of course, she has some help from her friends, and most notably, Ursula, her personal tutor who is dedicated to Akko and getting her through the trials that it becomes clear were faced by her by some degree. Because Ursula, secretly, is Chariot - under a new identity due to a great shame. She fiercely defends Akko from those who disparage her.

The first cour of the show focuses on Akko's antics with her friends, Ursula's mentorship, and trying not to get expelled from Luna Nova due to her ineptitude. And every time it is unconventional solutions and sheer force of will that saves her. Early on, she saves Diana, and an uneasy rapport is built up. But she maintains her idolisation of Chariot, which is made more and more obvious to be unhelpful to her, since she is her own person. A subplot involves Akko building a friendship with Andrew, a cynical aristocratic boy who slowly becomes fascinated by Akko's antics, and grows to regain a lost faith in magic. She keeps a hold on Shiny Rod, and it occasionally helps her when she utters certain words, transforming it and saving her from situations. This first cour culminates in a revelation that, to put it simply, the Rod requires seven sacred words to be uttered in order to access world altering magic - which Akko, her friends, Ursula, and Diana begin to search for. Akko is even given a choice by a magical entity to rewrite her life and live her dream as the next Chariot. But she refuses. She grows during this scene because she refuses to rewrite her life, for as much as she wishes things were different, because she cannot relinquish her experiences with her friends. Her ambition is beaten by her goodness.

The second cour brings the search for the words to front and centre; but first, in a direct middle finger to the bourgeoisie politics of Harry Potter, Akko joins a union to help the magical workers at Luna Nova, and it's hilarious. And inspiring. It's another example of how she maintains her integrity and doesn't back down.

The discovery of each word comes with some sort of moral lession - such as to be grateful, forgiving, compassionate, etc. A particular stand out episode comes with Akko learning the value of empathy and patience, and finding a cure to a magical disease. But things become much more complicated with the introduction of Croix Meridies, Ursula's bitter ex-girlfriend who uses her teaching position to pursue her own ends in world altering magic.

In the meantime, Akko continues to search for the words, and develops more bonds with her friends - even Diana, who she helps through a family emergency that almost causes her to drop out of Luna Nova. Akko, however, still lives in the shadow of Chariot.

This all comes to a head upon finding out Croix's plan: she intends to save the waning magical world by siphoning the magical potential of every person on earth. And she finds out this was used on her many years ago, accidently, at Chariot's show, which explains her ineptitude with magic, Chariot's disappearence and shame, and Ursula's actions, being one in the same. She has to confront that her hero is responsible for her pain. But she does get over it through the power of Diana comforting her, revealed to have also been a fan of Chariot and at that same show.

Croix is defeated, and Chariot forgiven, with Akko eventually learning in following her idol, she forgot to be her own person, and is finally able to mature to a degree. But first, the final word must be spoken, and self-actualisation is achieved. Croix and Chariot then have a last mission for the girls, which is to save the world from essentially an Evangelion that Croix lost control of. The main characters then propel Akko and Diana into the atmosphere, where they share a moment of breathtaking intimacy, defeat the creature, and together use the world changing magic to restore magic to the world for everyone. And then, some time later, everyone is there to watch Akko finally start to fly for the first time - under the mentorship of Chariot and help from her friends, she was finally able to see herself as a witch.

What a great ending. Apologies for the speed recap, but I had to build the context for what I'm about to say. Little Witch Academia is a show that's about a lot of things, explicitly, subtextually, and metatextually. There have been many deep dives by many people as to what the show is really about for them - and unlike JK Rowling who prevents death of the author by being so intwined and such an authority on the canon and meaning of her work, Little Witch Academia uses magic in a much more friendly ans inclusive sense. The work means what it means to each viewer, and the creators don't attempt to take that away. Some of the things the show has been read to be about include the nature of idols, growing up, the insecurities of the creator (read: Evangelion), and art school. Magic isn't just magic. Not literally. It's something that binds us all and helps us to find meaning.

Harry Potter lived in a cupboard under the stairs. The work resonated with many LGBT+ kids back in the day due to the narrative of a young person leaving the cupboard and embracing their true self. Of course, this means NOTHING anymore. Rowling is didactic about her own text, and as trans people have been warning for years until she literally had to spell it out in her current meltdown, her opinion of LGBT+ people isn't particularly high. Unfortunately, sometimes a cupboard under the stairs is just a cupboard under the stairs.

But let's return to the closet under the stairs.

Most viewers pick up fairly early on just how incredibly gay the show is. Lots of this is played for comedy and ship teasing (as anime is wont to do), of course; but there's an eventual sincerity to the implications of discovering who you can be and who you can love. Chariot and Croix are lesbians, and their rivalry yet affection for each-other is heavily paralleled in the relationship between Akko and Diana. Watch the second opening for the most blatant imagery here. Diana is implied to be gay, and Akko shows attraction to men and women, and presumably those elsewhere if some of the other fun characters are anything to go by. Of course, censorship in Japan makes these things difficult to discuss, but the creators are friendly enough with their audience to allow for their own readings, and despite initial intent, none of the characters were forced into straight pairings. I know I'll probably get some hostile comments, so I must re-iterate that this is my aggressive reading that the inclusivity of the text allows. Let's go back to the beginning.

Akko is restless. Seeing the beautiful woman that is Chariot that fateful night instilled in her the unbreakable drive to pursue who she wanted to be, and never ever stop. That night is interesting because it makes her dream inextribly tied to why that dream was so much harder for her to achieve than the average witch. Her dream, her identity that she strives for, is looked down upon, mocked, derided, and pitied by the other witches at this all girl's school due to Akko's arbitrarily assigned affliction that meant that even the most basic things about being a witch came with difficulty for her. She didn't grow up as a witch. That part of her was suppressed. And it's not fair. It's not her fault that the life she was given and who she was were at odds. It just isn't fair, she fights and fights and fights to be taken seriously, her infectious enthusiasm hiding a deep sadness that bubbles below the surface, knowing that she was prevented from being like the others.

Oh. Oh shit. Akko is trans.

Magic isn't "just" magic. Magic is who you are. Becoming a witch is often used as metaphor for growing into womanhood, and with this reading, a lot of the bizzare things that happen to Akko make much more sense contextually. There HAD to have been a trans person in the writer's room who had a similar idea, because some of the events of the show are SO intertwined with the trans experience that it's very unlikely to be a coincidence; and even if it was, that's what an open text and aggressive reading is for.

Diana's antagonism towards Akko is also given new layers. Like Akko, she's trans too. She was at the show. Her ambition was fuelled by that same event, WITH the unfairness of the magic drain. It was unnoticed because Diana and Akko were the only witches there that night, but Diana had the benefit of coming from a magic family, and so was able to reclaim her magic (identity...) through sheer force of will from the earliest age imaginable; isolating herself, suffering, fighting and fighting to study and suffer and take back who she was from the unfairness of it all, and eventually integrate into magic society. She was always an overachiever, and was so good at it all. She was able to hide - closet - what had happened to her through staying aloof and traditional, resenting Akko as a challenge, especially due to her initial hopelessness. Surely this PRETENDER can't just come in and be like HER, who had to SUFFER for who she was, especially if they couldn't ASSIMILATE into PROPER TRADITION. It's an antagonism within the trans community between types who prioritise assimilation and resent how "they make us REAL trans people look bad". Transphobes hate us either way. Stop fighting. And Diana eventually opens up, and recognises that she and Akko are the same. There's suddenly a lot more weight to the interpretation that they fell in love whilst restoring magic - read as self belief, truth, pride, new possibilities, and freedom - to the world.

I'm going to end this with something from a conversation I had with another trans girl over what the show means to us:

And when it got billed to me as "magic school with all girls" I avoided it because I was expecting some gender essentialist bullshit that would make me dysphoric and sad. But everything changes when the content of the show positions not just one, but at least two of the protagonists to be transgender women, their stories telling us that we can be whoever we want to be and that the world can be cruel and deal you a bad hand by assigning you something you're not. The world is a cruel place. The world will do all that it can to deny you your true self and tell you that you're wrong for feeling the way you do; because the world is WRONG. A believing heart is your magic. Forever and ever. Trans rights.

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Rapunzel concept art for Tangled (2010) by Claire Keane

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Early visual development for Wish (2023) by Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay and Brittney Lee.

An earlier version of the film saw Star take on a human form as a magical, glowing character inspired by Peter Pan. Ultimately, the creative team reconceptualized Star as an ethereal, playful entity resembling Mickey Mouse. "Now Star and Asha have an emotional journey. They are soulmates." -Allison Moore.

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Sometimes I think the reason they scrapped the original hotel Transylvania dracula design was because they knew that if we got that on the big screen you guys wouldn’t be able to handle yourselves.

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Long story anyways have fanart of the scrapped original Hotel Transylvania Dracula design

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Opinion on gackt's tasteless post on insta about kami and at kami's grave? 🤔

not gonna say that gackt’s feelings aren’t genuine bc who knows, but after everything he did to malice mizer he should honestly keep his mouth shut & remember kami in private. filming himself at the grave was awful & shockingly disrespectful to kami’s parents, who requested that the location NOT be broadcasted everywhere

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@小野永动机故障中

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ling miaomiao for the win 🗣️

and mu sheng ig,,

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MET SAYO YAMAMOTO & FUUKO NODA OF YURI ON ICE AT A PANEL YESTERDAY AND HERE’S SOME NEW (?) CANON TIDBITS/OTHER INFO THEY RELEASED

The Yuri on Ice movie has been confirmed. I REPEAT. IT IS CONFIRMED. IT IS REAL. THEY’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF MAKING IT.

Symbolism at the ending scenes of Yuri on Ice episode 1 VS Yuri on Ice episode 12: In the first ep, Yuuri is in total disbelief as he practically falls over while running to see Victor bathing in the onsen. We see that it’s Victor reaching out to him:

In episode 12 it’s the other way around. Yuuri is willingly running towards Victor. The producers did these scenes on purpose to emphasize how much their relationship had grown & developed over the course of the series.

ALSO CONFIRMED BY NODA & YAMAMOTO THEMSELVES: THE MORE “CUTE” (VERBATIM: “KAWAII”), RELAXED, AND WARMER SIDE OF VICTOR IS SOMETHING ONLY YUURI KATSUKI AND YUURI KATSUKI ALONE GETS TO SEE.

CAN. YOU. HEAR. MY. HEARTBEAT. BECAUSE. I. AM. FUCKGN.  S   C   R   E   A   M   I   N   G

Sayo Yamomoto, including male producers of YoI, practiced and did poses by themselves in their own homes/bathrooms in front of mirrors to try and see which would be the sexiest poses for Victor in the onsen scene.

CONFIRMED: Yuuri Katsuki is currently practicing in St. Petersburg with Victor Nikiforov. I would assume they live together but that’s just me but cmon guys who the hell are we kidding come ON  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ALSO CONFIRMED: They totally would’ve shown the kiss in ep 7 (and probably even Victor’s dingdong lmao) if it weren’t for Japanese censorship rules.

We weren’t allowed to take photos of Fuuko Noda & Yamamoto (I think this is a standard thing across all cons with the producers attending), but here is proof that this was an actual thing and that I was there:

note the date!!! 9/30/2017.

OTHER THINGS FROM THE CON THAT IM STILL NOT DONE SCREAMING ABOUT:

Keep reading

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Hi there! I was wondering if you had any Taobao reccomendations for more casual/adventurer type hanfu? Like the sort Sun Wukong wears in the 1996 adaptation of Journey to the West? Or just hanfu reccomendations if somebody wanted to cosplay him in general- Thank you!

Hi, thanks for the question!

Sun Wukong/孙悟空 from Journey to the West/西游记 is mostly depicted wearing a tunic that reaches down between the hips and the knees, fastened with a sash, and combined with trousers:

This style of hanfu that combines a cross-collar tunic + sash + trousers is called shuhe/裋褐 (also known as duanda/短打). Convenient and practical, shuhe was worn by common folk - men, women, and children - for daily life, including activities like farming. Therefore, shuhe is in my opinion the most ideal style for casual/adventurer type hanfu. Below - shuhe in modern illustrations, historical paintings, and period dramas:

Despite being one of the most commonly worn hanfu styles historically, there aren’t many shuhe options available for regular wear in the market currently, because hanfu wearers today prefer fancier/more formal styles. Below - a few men’s hanfu styles, from left to right: yichang/ruqun, zhiju, shuhe, & yuanlingpao:

Nevertheless, there is a Taobao shop I can recommend for shuhe - Chonghui Hantang/重回汉唐, which offers shuhe in four color schemes (row 1, row 2):

For Sun Wukong cosplay, I also recommend getting traditional huwan/护腕 (wrist guards) (row 1 - 1, 2) and xuezi/靴子 (boots) (row 2 - 1, 2) to complete the look:

For more references, please see my shuhe tag.

Hope this helps!

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(via 有光汉服 定金 针织交领衫 宽口袴套装春秋装-淘宝网)

有光汉服工作室

Hanfu made with knitted fabric. Cross-cover shan + kua (trousers)

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东汉合裆裤 Eastern han style trousers by  天汉骄阳汉服店